AFC [/u] AFCE [/u]New England Patriots: 14-2New York Jets: 11-5Buffalo Bills: 9-7Miami Dolphins: 3-13Patriots will once again rack up lots of points and feast on the likes of the AFCW, but teams that can get after Brady will do damage. Patriots keep turning over draft picks and refurbishing castoffs, which works until it doesn’t. Jets remain a steady contender, but the receiving corps (Holmes, Burress, Mason) is yesterday’s news. Bills were closer in games last year than people realize, and could have an exciting offense, but the defense still needs duct-taped. Miami’s QB situation is bad, so they will struggle to put up points and have to rely on an OK defense and a running game of Reggie Bush and rookie Daniel Thomas. Sparano gets canned before the year is up. AFCN [/u]Pittsburgh Steelers: 12-4Baltimore Ravens: 12-4Cleveland Browns: 8-8Cincinnati Bengals: 1-15Steelers need two things to win: a healthy Ben and a healthy Troy. The CB and OL situation aren’t any worse than last year, at least, and the offense has a potent receiving corps. Ravens OL has issues, and the receiver situation is dreadful, but the Steelers and Ravens will feast on having the NFCW in their schedule. New DC Dick Jauron will help shore up a rebuilding Browns D using the 4-3, and Colt McCoy should grow under new HC Shurmur’s WCO. There is absolutely nothing to like about the Bengals, however. They have some defensive players, but the defense will be overwhelmed trying to carry an offense with rookie QB Dalton, who is in over his head, and a poor receiving corps. Good news is, they get Andrew Luck, and get rid of HC Marvin Lewis. AFCS [/u]Houston Texans: 11-5Indianapolis Colts: 7-9Tennessee Titans: 6-10Jacksonville Jaguars: 3-13This is the year the Colts falter and Tennessee and Jacksonville are non-factors, so the path is cleared for Houston. Offense hasn’t been the problem, and new DC Wade Phillips should be able to maximize the defensive potential, with some new talent to work with. Colts have to be worried about Manning’s neck, but even putting that aside the Colts have been declining gradually for years. Titans won’t drop off a ton with HC Mike Munchak, who’s been with the team for a while, but new QBs and deterioration along both DL and OL will cause the Titans to struggle. Jack Del Rio is out as the Blaine Gabbert era gets off to a rocky start. Jags have been wildly inconsistent, MJD’s knees are a concern, the receivers are nothing great, and the defense is a Band-Aid of Fas. AFCW [/u]San Diego Chargers: 11-5Kansas City Chiefs: 6-10Denver Broncos: 4-12Oakland Raiders: 2-14Same old Chargers. They’ll stumble out of the gate, but clang through the slop of the AFCW, racking up meaningless defensive stats along the way. Their offense remains potent, but they don’t look like a team ready to take the next step. Chiefs lose OC Charlie Weis but retain other former Belichick toady DC Romeo Crennel. Not many offensive weapons, but the defense has some god LBers, headed by Tamba Hali, and should have a decent front 7. Broncos got rid of wacky HC Josh McDaniels and should see stable, solid coaching from John Fox, but the immediate prospects are rocky. There are a few players on offense (Orton, Lloyd, Moreno), but not enough, and the transition back to a 4-3 means this team will be in transition. And then there’s the team owned by the man whose face looks like a quart of vomited polyps. Onetime Ravens QB coach Hue Jackson inherits a team that’s never been the same since its Super Bowl loss. McFadden and Bush are good running backs, but they can’t carry the rest of this bunch. No more Nnamdi. It just looks ugly for the Raiders. Will Al die before he can fire Jackson? NFC [/u] NFCE [/u]Philadelphia Eagles: 12-4Dallas Cowboys: 10-6NY Giants: 8-8Washington Redskins: 4-12Not sold on the Dream Team, largely due to a shabby OL and inconsistent QB, but they have some serious firepower. Some defensive additions, including Nnamdi, should help the Eagles be more consistent if Vick can deliver down the stretch. The rest of the division remains in flux. Dallas is rid of Marshmallow Softie, HC Wade Phillips, whose calling is as a DC. The offense gets back a healthy Romo and plenty of other weapons. The defense gets new DC Rob Ryan, who will have fun dialing up crazy assed shit, but as solid as the front 7 are, the secondary still needs help. The Giants have seen Eli be Inconsistent Eli this preseason and have gotten butchered at CB. The secondary will really limit their chances. I keep hearing about how the Redskins may look better than people expect, but I still expect them to be utter shit. The offense is a case study in mediocrity, and Shanny’s installation of the 3-4 proves why just changing to that scheme does not automatically confer greatness. The Redskins are a bad Frankenstein monster. NFCN [/u]Green Bay Packers: 12-4Detroit Lions: 11-5Chicago Bears: 9-7Minnesota Vikings: 3-13Packers won the Super Bowl with a shitload of injuries but are now healthy, making them the best roster top to bottom in the NFL. Some complacency may creep in, and they will also have the big target on them. Still, expect the Pack to go deep this year. The Lions, like the Texans, are a sexy underdog pick. If Matthew Stafford and Jahvid Best stay healthy this year, this offense will be very potent. Like the Bills last year, they were in practically every game. Unlike the Bills, they’ve got a defense that is improving noticeably, behind the fearsome pass rush of Ndamukong Suh. The front 7 had an awesome showing against the vaunted Patriots in the preseason, and they’ll need to carry an uneven secondary. S Louis Delmas being healthy will help. The super-talented NFCS may keep the Lions from getting a Wild Card berth, though. The Bears continue their same uneven course: bad OL, weak WRs, solid D. There’s nothing to indicate the Bears have the firepower to be anything more than adequate. Meanwhile, HC Leslie Frazier has inherited a mess: a void at QB leftover from the Favre stint, a rapidly aging and less powerful D, including the loss of NT Pat Williams. As sudden as the demise of the D has been, so has the decline of the OL been. Donovan McNabb isn’t the answer, and he has no one to throw to (just like he had no one to throw to in Washington). It’s a bit much to ask Adrian Peterson to win games single-handedly. NFCS [/u]New Orleans Saints: 13-3Atlanta Falcons: 13-3Tampa Bay Buccaneers: 12-4Carolina Panthers: 2-14The Saints look like one of 3 or 4 teams in the NFC who are really stacked (Packers, Falcons, and Eagles are the others). They’ve got tons of offensive weapons, and even sending off Reggie Bush won’t hurt them with rookie RB Mark Ingram and the versatile midget Darren Sproles. The Saints also bolstered the health of their secondary, with S Mike Jenkins returning and CB Patrick Robinson in the mix. LB is a bit weak, but the Saints are a contender. This division will be screaming hot, however. Last year, the Falcons were the model of consistency, chugging away and winning a 1 seed in the NFC. But they lacked the killer instinct. This year, they’ve added in some pass rush help and rookie WR Julio Jones, which should make the Falcons more potent on both sides of the ball. There are some concerns with the secondary, but the Falcons should be even better this year. The real surprise will be the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who, a few short years ago, were bottom-feeders. The Bucs have some young offensive weapons, including QB Josh Freeman, WR Mike Williams, RB LeGarrette Blount, and WR Arrelious Benn. The Bucs secondary is solid, and they’ve added some DL heft to bookend DT Gerald McCoy. If the OL can gel and the LBs are decent, the Bucs could be a team that could chew through some lesser competition. The Panthers got Cam Newton, but they still suck, so who cares? NFCW [/u]St. Louis Rams: 11-5Arizona Cardinals: 9-7San Francisco 49ers: 5-11Seattle Seahawks: 3-13Rams QB Sam Bradford gets Denver washout Josh McDaniels as OC, which is where he’s better suited (see Phillips, Wade). The offensive line is beginning to cohere, and Steven Jackson remains a beast. It would be nice if Bradford had a few solid targets to throw to. DC Steve Spagnuolo has brought the magic he showed as the NYG DC to St. Lou, as the Rams are assembling a sack-happy defense. Strong defense and running game? Sound familiar? The Rams aren’t a great team, but they have enough to win this division. Right behind them is coach Whiz and his re-tooling Cards. QB Kevin Kolb is an improvement over the nightmare QB situation of 2010, and they have a WR, Larry Fitz-something-or-other. The OL remains a work in progress, and the offense has shuffled FAs in and out, so don’t expect miracles just yet. Whiz has some young talent on both sides of the ball, and add rookie CB Patrick Peterson to a solid secondary. If they can generate more pass rush, they’ll start to contend again, but they look a few years off. Still, they’ll surprise some teams and have a weak division slate. The Niners bring in whiny cunt John Harbaugh’s brother at HC, Jim Harbaugh, and he should eventually set them on the right course. Like every other new HC, the CBA bullshit was a huge hindrance to installing a new system. The Niners have been bolstering their OL and have some decent offensive weapons, but Alex Smith will never be the guy to take them to the promised land. They’re switching to the 3-4 and have a merry-go-round of players coming and going on D, which won’t be pretty for the new system. The Seahawks made the playoffs in 2010, somehow, but they have no QB. Charlie Whitehurst and Tarvaris Jackson remind me of the slop Arizona dealt with last year. Tom Cable was brought in to fix the OL, and they have some OK weapons, but the QB issue is pure death. The defense is old and broken down up front, but they need the bigs to help out a secondary that struggled last year. With no firepower on offense, the defense will buckle. First to worst in the division.